Saturday was Pig Processing Day at the Perizzolo compound. Chad got up at 6am and headed over to help out. They started off with 2 pigs: one 215 lbs, the other 385 lbs, and 125 kg in pork shoulders. Out of that they were able to make 29 sopresse, 950 sausages, 45 musetti, 55 salami, 12 capicolli and 1 pancetta! Talk about a heavy work load.
I got there just after lunch. They had finished making all the sopresse and salami, and were working on the musetti (or Cotechino).
Chad was in charge of stuffing the meat cannon with musetto goodness (if you like boiled pig parts).
Darios Dad & Godfather are in charge of tying up the musetti. That is a very senior position in the hierarchy of Pig Processing.
On the table next to the musetto station the men were grinding up some pork that had been seasoned in preparation for sausage stuffing.
I don’t know if these boys are really working very hard.
This is why you never throw anything out, because long after the kids are grown you can still use their baby bath tub to bathe pork products.
Vintage Love
Gina got the exciting task of soaking and reconstituting the dried intestines for the sausages!
Sausage Delight!
I’ve missed the last couple of Pig Processing Days, but I’m glad I made it out to this one. Next year I need to go even earlier so I can catch the butchering of it all. Darios Mom posted a picture of the pigs hanging in their garage waiting to be sliced an diced and it got me so excited! I definitely want to venture into butchering next, learning all the different cuts of meat and how to carve them.
Such a great tradition that is slowly being pass on through the generations!

































































